


ilikeyou.js

by blipblopblork



Series: ilikeyou.js [1]
Category: Silicon Valley (TV)
Genre: Computer Programming, First Kiss, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-10
Updated: 2015-09-10
Packaged: 2018-04-20 00:59:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4767608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blipblopblork/pseuds/blipblopblork
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Richard teaches Jared to program. Things get adorkable.</p>
            </blockquote>





	ilikeyou.js

“Hey Richard."

Richard spun around in his chair, surprised. He hadn’t heard anyone come up behind him.

“Sorry, ghostlike features again.” Jared grinned sheepishly. "Anyways, I was thinking, maybe..." He hesitated, uncharacteristically shy, then blurted out all at once, "wouldyouwanttoteachmehowtoprogram?"

Richard blinked twice, took a second to parse that, and then smiled.

"Sure, have a seat." He gestured at the empty spot next to him.

"Really? You would? Like, right now?" Surely Richard had much more important things to be doing than teaching a newbie like him how to code, Jared thought. He might have thought that last bit out loud, he wasn't sure - but Richard just patted the seat and grinned.

"Sure, why not? I was getting sick of reviewing these pull requests anyways. And some the comments Carla leaves in her code are, well..."

Jared peeked over Richard's shoulder and nodded in agreement, "that is a surprising amount of profanity."

Richard made a face. "Yeah, I think I may have learned a few new words. Anyways, why do you want to learn to code?"

"Well, a good project manager should have at least a cursory understanding of all aspects of the project. Technical expertise is the area where I find myself most lacking. Plus, I thought having a better understanding of technical matters might help me relate better to the engineering team."

Richard did his best to read between the lines. "So you want to learn to code so you get more of Dinesh and Gilfoyle's jokes?"

Jared laughed. "Among other things." Dinesh and Gilfoyle weren't really the engineers Jared wanted to "relate better" to, but he wasn't about to admit that to Richard.

"I think you might be the first guy who's ever learned to code because he wanted to fit in." Richard chuckled self-deprecatingly, then realized that Jared might take offense. "Not that you don't fit in here! I mean, you do! I was talking about, well... anyways, programming!" he steered the conversation back to safe territory. Jared, thankfully, let him. "So, what do you want to learn?"

"Whatever you think is useful. You're brilliant, I'm sure you know best."

"Heh, thanks" Richard smiled, unsure what to do with the praise. "Have you ever programmed before?"

"I was signed up for a course at Vassar, but I had to drop it three weeks in. Couldn't type with a broken arm."

Richard took a second to process this. "Couldn't type with... Jared, did somebody hurt you?"

Jared's eyes lit up. "Nope, not that time! I got crushed in a mosh pit at a Tegan and Sara concert." He glowed with the memory. "Best ER trip ever! They even got Sara to sign my cast! Or maybe it was Tegan..." Jared paused, suddenly realizing for the first time how worrisome it was that he couldn't tell his two favorite musical goddesses apart. "I could go check?"

Richard shook his head - he couldn't even begin to unpack the number of questions that story raised, so he asked the one that was foremost on his mind.

"What language was it?"

"On the cast?" Jared looked puzzled. "English, I suppose."

"No, I mean the class. What programming language?"

"Oh. Maybe Java? Or JavaScript? Those are the same thing, right?"

Richard visibly flinched, almost like he'd been slapped. He forced himself to take a few calming breaths before he replied.

"Let's use JavaScript. That's what you would use if you were ever going to make changes on the site."

Jared beamed. Richard - brilliant, beautiful, perfect Richard - thought that he might be worthy to someday touch Pied Piper code? This was the best day ever.

\-------------------

Richard looked up at the clock, shocked to realize that an hour had already gone by. Teaching was going surprisingly well. It wasn’t something he’d ever thought he’d be good at - communication wasn’t exactly his forté - but these were concepts he knew like the back of his hand, things he’d understood intuitively since he was a gangly awkward middle schooler. And now that he was a [still-awkward] adult, he was finding it incredibly rewarding to be sharing those ideas with someone else.

And Jared was taking to programming like a fish to water - the way he lit up when he understood each new idea, it was as though he was discovering something magical for the first time. And it was more than a little distracting, if Richard was honest with himself. Fortunately, Richard was so comfortable with basic programming technique, he could explain it well even without being 100% attentive.

“…so now let’s say you wanted to store some data. You can create an object, like this...” Richard explained, and typed out the following:

> var richard = {  
>      name: 'Richard Hendricks',  
>      address: '5230 Newell Road, Palo Alto, CA'  
>  };

“Objects store data in key-value pairs. So in this example, ‘name’ and ‘address’ are the keys, and the text next to them are their values."

Jared nodded. This made sense. It was kind of like having two columns next to each other in Excel. “Can I try?” He reached over and added his own object to the file:

> var jared = {  
>      name: 'Donald "Jared" Dunn',  
>      address: '5234B Newell Road, Palo Alto, CA'  
>  };

“I’ve decided to designate the guest house 5234B. So my mail and Noah’s doesn’t get confused.”

Richard kindly refrained from pointing out that Noah probably wasn’t going to accidentally open mail addressed to Jared Dunn. He looked at the code, impressed - Jared had gotten the syntax right on the first try, even the quotation marks, which could have been tricky.

“Awesome. So we can store lots of different types of data in an object, not just strings of text like we have here. Do you remember any of the other types of data we talked about earlier?"

"I could add a number.” Jared reached over and amended his code to add his age:

> var jared = {  
>      name: 'Donald “Jared” Dunn',  
>      address: '5234B Newell Road, Palo Alto, CA’,  
>      age: 29  
>  };

“Great!” Richard said. He’d been sort of wondering about Jared’s age for a while, actually. It had never come up, and Richard hadn’t found a tactful way to ask. It was nice, somehow, to find out that they were only two years apart - though if pressed he couldn’t have explained why.

“Or you can add a boolean, like this…” Richard made a small change to Jared’s code this time, adding a new property.

> var jared = {  
>      name: 'Donald "Jared" Dunn',  
>      address: '5234B Newell Road, Palo Alto, CA’,  
>      age: 29,  
>      isAwesome: true  
>  };

Richard worried at his lip, unsure if that was maybe too weird - but the look on Jared’s face made it worth it.

“You really think I’m awesome?” Jared asked.

“Yeah, I do."

“Okay, then here’s another one.” And now it was Jared’s turn to modify Richard’s object.

> var richard = {  
>      name: 'Richard Hendricks',  
>      address: '5230 Newell Road, Palo Alto, CA’,  
>      isWonderful: true  
>  };

“Heh, thanks” Richard smiled sheepishly.

“Wait, I’m not done!” Jared kept typing...

> var richard = {  
>      name: 'Richard Hendricks',  
>      address: '5230 Newell Road, Palo Alto, CA’,  
>      isWonderful: true,  
>      isBrilliant: true,  
>      isKind: true,  
>      isAmazing: true  
>  };

He was on a roll, but Richard reached out a hand to Jared’s to stop his fingers from flying across the keyboard.

“Wow, Jared. You really think... you think all those things, about me?"

“Well, yeah, Richard. Of course I do. They’re true."

Richard wasn’t sure what to say. But something about the moment made him feel bold.

“Hey Jared."

“Yeah?"

“Remember if statements from earlier? I’ve got another one for you." Richard pulled the laptop to him and quickly typed something out, then spun it around so Jared could see.

> if( jared.likesRichard )  
>  {  
>      console.log("Kiss him.");  
>  }

Jared let out a small gasp.

“Wait, hang on.” Richard quickly tacked on an addition to the statement.

> if( jared.likesRichard )  
>  {  
>      console.log("Kiss him.");  
>  }  
>  else  
>  {  
>      console.log("Nevermind. We can pretend this never happened. That’s cool too.");  
>  }

Jared stared at the code for at least a full minute. Finally, after what felt like an eternity to Richard, he spoke.

“That’s not going to work."

Richard’s face fell.

“No! I mean the code. It will throw an error unless we define jared.likesRichard first."

And then Jared did an amazing thing. He reached over and added

> jared.likesRichard = true;

above the if statement.

Richard smiled. “Well, I guess now we have to run it and see what happens."

It worked perfectly.

**Author's Note:**

> The brilliant genyys asked for "Richard teaches Jared to program" on Tumblr. Thank you for the inspiration!
> 
> Also, I'm a little bit in love with the implication that somehow, even when he was living in a garage, Jared has managed to hold onto a decade-old used medical cast that was signed by either Tegan or Sara (but most likely, a kindly hospital employee who vaguely resembled the pair and was willing to play along when Jared was loopy on pain meds.)


End file.
